For this 3–5 page assessment, you will analyze a leadership situation in terms of effective leadership skills, traits, and values. You will then analyze a leadership situation from your own experience in terms of the dynamics between the leader and the follower.
Leadership is a complex construct, and defining leadership is a difficult task. Throughout this course, you will examine many definitions of leadership, and you are encouraged to develop your own definition of leadership. As a starting point, Northouse (2022) explained that one component common to nearly all definitions of leadership is that it is an influence process toward goal attainment.
Thus, your consideration of leadership in this course will not be confined to the formally designated leader in a group. Coaches, teachers, family members, community figures, and organizational leaders all may have influence on others and provide leadership in some way.
When we look at how leadership is defined, it brings up questions and issues. What is the importance of leadership? What does it mean to be a leader? What skills must one possess to effectively lead within an organization or in one’s own life?
You should examine a variety of research and ideas about leadership traits and skills. For example, Bennis and Thomas (2002) said that
great leaders possess four essential skills, the most critical being “adaptive capacity” (p. 45).
Much research has investigated how styles of leadership can affect involvement, commitment, performance, and quality. Leadership styles range from directive to participative, authoritative to democratic, and task-motivated to relationship-motivated. Leadership theories are associated with use of leadership styles. It is helpful to review the distinctions and explore ways to determine the best style of leadership to fit different situations.
The ability for a leader to influence outcomes may depend on a variety of factors. For example, leadership in a virtual environment may
depend on technologies and the ability to communicate across distances. Or, followership may be an important part of the leadership
equation. You should consider factors such as followership, maturity level of followers (or team members), and a virtual environment, as
these are some of many factors that influence leadership.
Vroom and Jago (2007) pointed out that “organizational effectiveness (often taken to be an indication of its leadership) is affected by
situational factors not under leader control. Although army generals, orchestra conductors, and football coaches receive adulation for
success and blame for failure, successful performance is typically the result of the coordinated efforts of many” (p. 22). This is an
opportunity to examine factors that influence the approach to leadership in a given situation.
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the following questions and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.
For the following questions, read and refer to the Yukl and Mahsud (2010) article, “Why Flexible and Adaptive Leadership Is Essential,” listed in the Leadership Development and Styles resource activity.
– Think about influential leaders from your own experience and identify the traits, values, and skills that made these individuals effective
leaders.
– How do you define great leadership?
– How does leadership need to change, based upon the characteristics of the followership and team environment?
References
Bennis, W., & Thomas, R. (2002). The crucibles of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 80(9), 39–45.
Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage.
Vroom, V., & Jago, A. (2007). The role of the situation in leadership. American Psychologist, 62(1), 17–24.
Preparation
Click the video Leadership Lessons Learned at Starbucks to view the case study and use it to complete this assessment. Many contextual factors impact how you lead in a given situation. Two of these contextual factors include followership and the team environment. For example, leading may change depending on the commitment, character, or maturity level of followers, and leading in a corporation may be
different than in a nonprofit organization or an educational setting. As you complete your analysis of the situations for this assessment,
consider how the context affected the role of the leader in the situation and the needed leadership skills, traits, styles, or strategies for
being effective in that context.
Complete these tasks; they will help you with the assignment:
– View the media piece “Leadership Lessons Learned at Starbucks” linked above.
– Read articles on followership. Review at least one article on followership listed in the course, and one article on followership from the
last three years, by conducting independent research.
Requirements
Complete the following:
Analyze leadership traits that contribute to leadership effectiveness in a particular context. Include examples from the video and from
your work or other relevant experience. In the “Leadership Lessons Learned at Starbucks” video:
– What leadership traits and skills made this person effective as a leader within the context?
– What are one or two essential values that the leader reflected in actions and behaviors?
– What is the importance of values-based leadership and ethical leadership in the context of this case study?
Analyze how leadership choices reflect a leader’s values, and the impact of congruent or incongruent actions with values. Think of a
leader you have worked with in the past and choose a situation in which to analyze the dynamics between the leader and the follower(s).
– Analyze the importance of adaptive leadership in effectively reaching followers. Use the articles and your chosen situation to answer the following questions:
* How did the leader in this situation take followership into account?
* How could the leader have strengthened an approach to followership?
* What have you found to be most important about how the leader works with followers?
* What does it take to be a good follower? How important is situational leadership?
* In what ways can leaders adapt their leadership styles to most effectively reach the specific makeup of the followers?